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Monthly Archives: September 2012

Luis F. Cruz, 43, of Nashua, N.H. and former resident of Jamaica Plain, Mass., died suddenly on Sun., Aug. 26, 2012 at his home. Born June 21, 1969 in Guatemala City, Guatemala, son of Jose Lauro Cruz of Salt Lake City, Utah and Ligia Garcia, of Randolph, Mass., and husband of Enid (Rodriguez) Cruz,...

By Mayor Thomas M. Menino, Special to the Gazette Jamaica Plain has become an even livelier place to visit lately! One reason is the extension of the very popular JP Centre/South Main Streets’ First Thursdays into a year-round event. The stroll has grown a great deal in the seven years since it began...

JP boasts a diverse population of about 38,000, according to the 2010 census: 54 percent white; 25 percent Hispanic/Latino; 13 percent African-American; and 4 percent Asian. JP has a large gay and lesbian population and is home to several prominent GLBT rights activists. Once called “The Eden of America” by a visitor, according to...

Though Jamaica Plain is part of the city of Boston, the parks, urban wilds, playgrounds and community gardens, many supported by the city and state, allow an escape from an overdose of urban life. JP is bordered on three sides by green space, including several jewels of the Emerald Necklace, designed by Frederick Law...

Just as Jamaica Plain’s population is composed of a wide range of people and groups, the Boston neighborhood is divided into various sections for different purposes. Subneighborhoods Jamaica Plain is divided into 11 major sub-neighborhoods recognized on the Boston Redevelopment Authority zoning map and largely used by locals. Within each sub-neighborhood there are other,...

Once referred to as “the Eden of America,” Jamaica Plain is a unique section of the City of Boston. It was part of the Town of Roxbury until 1848. It was then part of West Roxbury, until it finally became Jamaica Plain. Legend has it that the name Jamaica Plain came from the fondness...

We welcome the many new residents who arrived in JP this month. For those of us who have lived or worked here for a year, a decade or a lifetime, there can only be envy for those who are enjoying their first experiences of the great things this neighborhood offers. A stroll around the...

The crumbling Casey Overpass must be wrapped in fabric netting or otherwise outfitted to protect passers-by from more falling debris. We are lucky that the concrete and asphalt that fell off the overpass on Aug. 31 landed on empty ground rather than on, say, schoolkids or a windshield. We might not be so lucky...

Democratic President Barack Obama surely will win the JP vote this November. But Green Party candidate Jill Stein sounds like a much closer match to JP’s progressive politics with her “Green New Deal.” In some ways, so does Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson, who proposes legalizing marijuana, killing the PATRIOT Act and approving same-sex...